Tag Archives: Outpost

Kicked off the tour with a very nice show at the Outpost in Cambridge. Had a really good crowd and it was great to see some teachers and mentors that I haven’t seen since I left Boston two years ago. Local trombonist Tom Plsek played a nice opening improv set with his “3bone” group.

Randy, Jacob, Jesse

We did this gig just as a trio as Joe Moffett wasn’t able to make it. Looking forward to getting together with him tomorrow to rehearse and prepare for our recording session with Joe Morris and the next gig in Hartford. Randy is recording all of our gigs so I hope to post a track or two eventually. Stay tuned!!

I’ll be hopping on a plane tonight to head to Boston to start my first east coast tour. The trip will last a week and a half, and will include 6 shows, a radio interview, and a recording session with improvising guitarist Joe Morris. I’ll try to make as many posts as I can during the tour so please stay tuned!!

Seeking to re-contextualize unique sonic vocabularies and develop new methods for improvisation, the newly-formed quartet of Jacob Zimmerman (Berkeley, CA), Randy Pingrey (Boston, MA), Jesse Ward (Houston, TX) and Joe Moffett (Brooklyn, NY) will be embarking on their very first tour this summer. Before dispersing to various parts of the country the members met each other as jazz performance majors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Their interests coalesced under a unique combination of mentorship and instruction – each studying under composer Anthony Coleman and free improvising guitarist Joe Morris. Long standing duo, trio, and large ensemble work exists between the group, however this will be their first time reuniting to develop their music as a quartet. The focus of the tour will be to present new original compositions by each member, as well as exploring and developing the group’s unique approach to improvisation. See below for a calendar, sounds, bios, and links. Stay tuned as more events will be added as they are confirmed.

Saxophonist and composer Jacob Zimmerman (b.1986) studied at the renowned Garfield High School in Seattle, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where he received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Saxophone Performance. Zimmerman is currently a 2nd year Masters Composition student at Mills College in Oakland, California. His teachers have included Roscoe Mitchell, Jerry Bergonzi, James Fei, Joe Morris, Anthony Coleman, Allan Chase, and John Mallia. Zimmerman has performed at a variety of prominent venues and festivals including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Jordan Hall in Boston, and Avery Fisher Hall in New York.

Boston-based trombonist and composer Randy Pingrey has been an active participant in many genres of music. He has been fortunate enough to perform and record in New York and Boston with jazz musicians like Frank Carlberg, Bill McHenry, Anthony Coleman, and Jerry Bergonzi, with indie rock bands like Bon Iver, Akron Family, and Land of Talk, and with classical musicians like Norman Bolter, John Faieta, and Doug Wright. Randy is a graduate of New England Conservatory and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and is currently working on writing music which combines his love for improvised jazz music with an interest in the American experimental music tradition.

Jesse Ward

Guitarist Jesse Ward attended the Houston High School for Performing Arts, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. At the conservatory his teachers included Ben Monder, Joe Morris, Anthony Coleman, and Brad Shepik among others. In 2008 Jesse was the recipient of the Jonathan Keith award from the Boston Microtonal Society for his work composing with microtones. Most recently he has assumed the position of band leader at the Ashford Community Church in Texas.

Joe Moffett is a Brooklyn-based trumpet player and improviser. He has been involved in a number of projects which range from solo trumpet performances, to touring with his own ensembles, to performing as a section player and soloist in Joe Morris’s Go Go Mambo, which traveled to Spain in 2006 and 2007 and also performed at the 2009 Vision Festival in New York City. Joe is the co-founder of a number of New York and Philadelphia-based ensembles, including Gleason’s Twins, a trumpet-voice duo that performs settings of its own text. He is also a member of Bird Fly Yellow, a quartet that in 2010 performed Julius Hemphill’s Flat Out Jump Suite as part of the Ars Nova Series in Philadelphia. He has performed in a large variety of venues, from Brooklyn’s Southpaw to the Jamaica Plain Library in Boston, Mass. Other venues at which Joe has appeared include the Stone and ABC No Rio in New York, the Heaven Gallery in Chicago, and the Lily Pad and the Mobius Gallery in Boston. In addition to musical performances, Joe has given readings of his poetry and currently has a poem published on EOAGH, an online journal.